UPC ecoRacing

Team Description

UPC ecoRacing is a technological research association made up of engineering students from the ESEIAAT (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) whose main objective is to develop new technologies in the field of the sustainable automotive industry. One of the main activities in UPC ecoRacing is to create single-seaters in order to participate in Formula Student events.

In 2010, after two years of R&D, UPC ecoRacing introduced the first competition hybrid car designed and assembled in Spain: the ecoR2. With this revolutionary prototype, the team was chosen to participate in the Formula Student competition at Silverstone, where it achieved the eighth place in the alternative energies category. At the end of the first competition season, the project achieved a staggering second place in the Formula Student Electric & Hybrid Italy event in Turin. Furthermore, the ecoR2 was the car with the least energy consumption in the competition.

In 2011, thanks to its collaborators and sponsors, the team introduced a new version of the ecoR2 with technical improvements and a new image. With this new car, the team achieved the sixth position in the Formula Student at Silverstone and obtained the second position in the Formula Student Spain.

In 2012 the target was to go deeper into the study of the car, to extend the technical expertise and to maximize the performance in order to face the ecoR2 with the 40 most competitive teams at the Formula Hybrid competition in the United States. The team, helped by all its collaborators and sponsors, gave its best again and the hard work paid off: a third position in the general classification and the victory in the Static Events. With these results, three podiums in three different competitions, the team established itself as Spain’s most successful Formula Student project, being the first one to reach podium positions and complete all the events in which it had participated.

For 2013, the goal was to continue developing the project with the addition of 30 new engineering student selected from over 150 candidates. The team focused on the knowledge transfer and establishing the basis to design, build and compete with a completely new 100% electric car, the ecoRZ.

During 2014, the ecoRZ was designed and developed. With this project, the team won the Formula SAE Italy with 323 of 325 possible points, in which industry judges evaluated very positively the design of the car. Thus UPC ecoRacing reaches a new milestone: being Spain’s first team to reach the highest position on the podium in a Formula Student competition!

Later, on 2015, the target was to manufacture and build the ecoRZ. With this the team obtained the sixth position in the Formula SAE Italy 2015, coupled with the second position in the Autocross and the fourth one in the Acceleration. Similarly, on this competition the team achieved the second position in the Cost, Manufacturing and Sustainability event, which they also won at the Formula Student Spain 2015, at Montmeló. On this same event the team achieved the first position among the electric vehicles at Formula Student 2015. Furthermore, at this competition, that took place in the UK, the fourth position at the “Business Plan” event was attained.

In 2016, in which the objective was to continue evolving the 100% electric concept of the ecoRZ, UPC ecoRacing travelled to the Formula Student, where the 2016 ecoRZ won the Most Efficient Car Award and achieved the third overall position among electric cars. The great potential that the single-seater showed at the United Kingdom was confirmed at the Formula Student Germany, where the Most Efficient Car Award was won for a second time in a row. The season ended at the Formula Student Spain, where the team won the Best Spanish Team Award, among more than 25 state participating teams. Moreover, at this same competition the 2016 ecoRZ broke the record on the Acceleration event for RWD vehicles, as it completed the 75 meters in only 3,663 seconds. That means that it reached 100 km/h in only 2,6 seconds from a still position.

This last season, UPC ecoRacing has continued with the evolution and the improvement of the ecoRZ concept. The team began with a huge logistic challenge: to be the first European team with an electric vehicle to participate on the Formula Student Australasia, which took place in Melbourne, where the best oriental teams compete. All the effort paid off, as the team achieved the first position on the electric category of the whole competition. Furthermore, the team won the Design Event and earned the third position on the Acceleration Event, the Business Plan and the Efficiency Event, thus being the most awarded team of the competition. Also, with the successes achieved on previous competitions, UPC ecoRacing was on the seventh position on the electric vehicles World Ranking of the Formula Student.

The season ended in the Formula Student Spain, in Montmeló, where UPC ecoRacing achieved the second position on the Cost & Manufacturing Event. Also, the ecoRZ broke, once again, the record on the Acceleration Event that we had already established the previous year for a Formula Student vehicle with rear wheel drive. The ecoRZ completed the 75m in only 3,662 seconds, which translates into an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in only 2,6s.

In the new season, which has just begun, the team is already working in a totally new concept of single-seater that will be presented coinciding with the 10th anniversary of UPC ecoRacing. With this new car the team hopes to continue achieving the great successes that characterize it, which position UPC ecoRacing as the best team in the State.